ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER? CO2 IS YOUR FRIEND - PART IV

"Bing Cherries"
Painting by Cheryl A. Pass

Why is our government spending money on studies of carbon emissions? Carbon, Oh Carbon, Where art thou? Carbon, oh elixir of life, do not foresake us now!

A week or so ago I wrote an article on the study of bovine emissions, paid for by our generous tax dollars, with the goal of making us feel very guilty for producing meat and dairy sources. Poor Elsie...she just can't get a break. And Elmer, he just keeps chewing his cud, dreaming of green pastures.

Today, At Anthony Watts page, I found yet another government study on carbon emissions, this time targeting the evils of fruits, vegetables, and grains. It just doesn't stop. Seems we are paying the DOE to find out how much the production of fruits and vegetables results in carbon emissions across these United States.

As Anthony describes the study: "From DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, probably the biggest load of crap I’ve seen in quite some time. I realize that’s harsh, and I don’t think I’ve ever used that sentence to describe a scientific study, but there’s really no other way to say it when we have massive imports of fruits and vegetables from other countries, and they are worried about carbon in crops crossing state lines and regions in the USA. But the sad part is, this sort of “science” is so bloody obvious a fifth grader could tell you that “Their calculations showed that the most agriculturally active regions, shown in blue, are carbon sinks while the regions with larger populations, shown in red, are carbon sources.” (Go to Anthony's page to see the chart.)

Nevertheless, a cited newspaper article at Anthony's website states thus: "Carbon is the basis of life on Earth, including plants. During photosynthesis, plants take in carbon dioxide and convert it into carbon-based sugars needed to grow and live. When a plant dies, it decomposes and releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. After eating plants, animals and humans release the plants’ carbon as either carbon dioxide while breathing or as methane during digestion." Duh!

The study concludes that the measures of carbon releases were compensated by carbon sinks. In other words, what goes out also goes in. And if you graduated from the fifth grade, you learned the miracle of photosynthesis and that our planet deals with carbon quite nicely, thank you very much.

I'm sure the mapping and technology done in this taxpayer funded study was very scientific and important to us. Don't you think so? I mean, how are you going to tax the skin off of Americans if you don't make them pay for the studies to justify it? First you skin them with the study funding, and then you skin them with the carbon taxes on fruits, vegetables, and grains. Right?

The author of the study, some genius named Tristam West, opines: “These calculations substantially improve what we know about the movement of carbon in agriculture,” West said. “Reliable, comprehensive data like this can better inform policies aimed at managing carbon dioxide emissions.” This research was funded by NASA through the North American Carbon Program.

The study was done in coordination with lots of other government agencies. Isn't that nice? And what do you suppose Mr. West means by, "managing carbon dioxide emissions?" ( We eat, therefore we must be punished.)

I guess Mr. West and our agencies have never graduated from the fifth grade....But we did and we don't want to be taxed on our carbon emissions, now do we?? Yes, readers. We are smarter than fifth graders.

Read the whole story at WattsUpWithThat